Where is the attribute definition of Category class?

Ruby
1

Hi everyone, I’m a newbie of ruby and rubyonrails.
I’m trying <> those days, and I found some code generated by
rails (precisely ActiveRecord) hard to understand, as follows:

class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_length_of :category, :within => 1…20
validates_uniqueness_of :category, :message => “already exists”
end

I know this code define a class according to the Catetory table in db,
but I cannot find the code defining attributes corresponing to the
fields in Category table.

Can anybody help me?
Thanks in advance and merry christmas

2

On Dec 24, 2005, at 11:07 PM, [email protected] wrote:

I know this code define a class according to the Catetory table in db,
but I cannot find the code defining attributes corresponing to the
fields in Category table.

Can anybody help me?
Thanks in advance and merry christmas

In most cases, you won’t find any code in Active Record objects that
define table attributes because, through the power of Ruby, it can be
inferred at runtime.

FYI - In the future, it might be better to direct your Rails
questions to the Rails mailing list instead of this one.

http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

~ ryan ~

3

Hi –

On Sun, 25 Dec 2005, [email protected] wrote:

but I cannot find the code defining attributes corresponing to the
fields in Category table.

Can anybody help me?

It’s done at runtime via method_missing. Have a look in
lib/active_record/base.rb, in the ActiveRecord source. For version
1.13.2 you’ll find method_missing definition on line 1479.

David

–
David A. Black
[email protected]

“Ruby for Rails”, from Manning Publications, coming April 2006!

4

On Dec 25, 2005, at 8:12 AM, [email protected] wrote:

Obviously every organization’s coding practices differ, but I’ll bet
that your colleagues would rather have good documentation for your
classes rather than having your classes perfectly insulated in their
own little world, regardless if your using Rails or not.

Also, the Rails philosophy is more about using conventions over
configuration. The way Active Record handles table attributes is a
convention that, once internalized, allows significant speed up in
development time. If everyone in your organization understands this
convention, there’s no need to go against that grain.

Again, I encourage you to talk directly with Rails community as
they’re probably better suited to answer these sorts of questions.

~ ryan ~

5

I know, i know,:slight_smile:
ActiveRecord that by implementing the Object#method_missing method
which will be called whevever trying to access a attribute not defined
yet.
Is that right?
But in a big team-developing software, how can I enforce the precise
reference of my classes’ attributes by other developers, not refering
to non-exist attribute? of course this will raise “column not found”
exception at runtime, but can we prevent it from the very beginning.

6

Thanks, ryan. I’v joined the rails mailing list now, but I think as we
going
on, this problem is
becoming more like a ruby problem,~!~
I think if there is any compile tool in ruby that is powerful enough to
check the reference to my class
and the database structure to determine if the references are valid,
or if there is any unit test automatation tool which can generate cases
for
that purpose.

Code convertion is a way, but only suitable for experienced programmer.
And the defer of the attribute definition will cause some word-complete
function not work, such as
that in source insight.

And is it dangerous if I supply a library that any user can fill any
attributes into it by using method_missing? A library must be able to
deal
with any misuage or malicious attack. Safety guaranteed by documentation
is
not really safe.

2005/12/25, J. Ryan S. [email protected]:

7

Rails implements access to record fields using at runtime using
method_missing. If there is no such field in the database which maps to
the attribute called on the Active Record then an exception is
thrown.Simple! I dont see how this can be construed as a security
problem.

8

On Dec 25, 2005, at 6:49 PM, Sadys HumbleBee wrote:

Thanks, ryan. I’v joined the rails mailing list now, …

Good work! :smiley:

but I think as we going on, this problem is becoming more like a
ruby problem,~!~

Nuts.

I think if there is any compile tool in ruby that is powerful
enough to check the reference to my class and the database
structure to determine if the references are valid,

We are still talking about Rails, right? ActiveRecord determines the
columns in a database table dynamically at runtime. In other words,
Rails doesn’t check the ‘references’ to the table, it creates
them. Here an example SQL table definition and an associated
ActiveRecord sub-class definition.

create table friends (
id int not null auto_increment,
name varchar(100) not null
);

class Friend < ActiveRecord::Base
end

Now, by running the code

friend = Friend.new
friend.name = ‘Foo’

Rails automatically adds the following method the Friend class

def name=(value)
@name = value
end

and then sends a message to that method with the ‘Foo’ argument.
This all happens because Friend is a sub-class of ActiveRecord (and
because you told your Rails app how to find the friend table via the
databases.yml file too).

or if there is any unit test automatation tool which can generate
cases for that purpose.

Unit testing is an important part of Rails apps, but I’d suggest
diving right into Rails development before you think about testing.

Code convertion is a way, but only suitable for experienced
programmer. And the defer of the attribute definition will cause
some word-complete function not work, such as that in source insight.

I’m not really sure what you meant by these statements.

And is it dangerous if I supply a library that any user can fill
any attributes into it by using method_missing? A library must be
able to deal with any misuage or malicious attack. Safety
guaranteed by documentation is not really safe.

ActiveRecord, like most classes, does in fact deal with sending
messages to non-existent methods: It throws an exception. :slight_smile:

I’m not entirely sure what you’re driving at, but if you haven’t done
any Rails programming I’d suggest you start with a few tutorials
online. If you’re still intrigued by Rails and the Ruby language,
there are some great books over at http://
www.pragmaticprogrammers.com that I personally recommend.

Good luck!

~ ryan ~